Star of Latin American new wave to tread Almeida's boards

The last time Gael García Bernal worked in London it was as a waiter and bricklayer. Since then he has become a heart-throb of Latin American new wave cinema. Next year he will be back in London - this time round he will be starring at the Almeida theatre.

The 25-year-old appeared most recently as Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Walter Salles' The Motorcycle Diaries.

This year he also won praise for his role in Pedro Almodóvar's latest film, Bad Education, in which he played a drugged-up drag queen. Other successes include Y Tu Mamá También and Amores Perros.

For the Almeida, Bernal will take the role of Leonardo in García Lorca's drama Blood Wedding, in which a young Andalusian bride elopes with her childhood sweetheart on her wedding day.

The production will open next May, directed by Rufus Norris. "Gael has got total access to all the layers of humanity," Norris said. "In Motorcycle Diaries and Y Tu Mamá También and Amores Perros I was struck by the openness of him; he is vulnerable, funny and sexy."

It will be the first theatre Bernal has tackled for some while - but not the first time he will have acted in London. He trained at the Central School of Speech of Drama before being whisked off by Alejandro González Iñárrituto make Amores Perros.

Bernal was approached previously by the artistic director of the Young Vic to appear in London in a production by Norris. While he agreed in principle, his shooting schedule prevented him from taking part. Michael Attenborough, the artistic director of the Almeida, was more fortunate in his timing.

It will not be the first time that the theatre has induced glamorous stars to grace its stage. Juliette Binoche, Kevin Spacey, Diana Rigg and Ralph Fiennes all acted there under the previous artistic directorship of Jonathan Kent and Ian McDiarmid.